AVI to FCP compatible version

Hi everyone,
Happy Christmas eve from me.

I have been given material in AVI, and it is greyed out when I launch imprt media, how do I go about converting this media into FCP compliant material?

I have tried VLC, not sure what to use.

Justine

Hi Justine,

Merry Christmas to you too.

You can download MPEG Streamclip , a free app that can read AVI files and convert them to Quicktime.

Robbert-Jan

Hi Robbert-Jan,

I did and I get cannot prepare movie, the AVI appears as a grey square in the top left of the streamclup with the 4 dots?
Am I doing something wrong?
Justine

Can you open it in the QT player? Can anything open it? Any player? It's possible the file is corrupt.

Hi Justine,

that's hard to say. AVI is a container for video files that is used on Windows computers. But it is important to know what the codec is that is used for the video file in that AVI container.
You can try to convert it with specialized software as described here . I guess you can download a free trial version to check if it works for you're files.

Robbert-Jan

The files play 100% with VLC, when it comes to QT, it says Unable to play, with 2 boxes Tell Me More and OK.

I have tried the various converters in the app store, will take hours to convert with watermark?

It does not play in QUicktime.
Justine

WARNING RANT Ahead...

Why in 2013 and with 10.1 are we having AVI issues, surely someone at Apple could have installed a decent converter?

Justine

Hi Justine,

Ranting won't help much. As said, AVI is Windows and not MAC. And it is better to say: "Why am I having AVI issues. Maybe I should search the internet if there is anything to solve my problem".
Just a thought.
Also there are many people out here that want to help, and ranting is not going to help you.

Enough on that, now for the problem. If your file is playing back OK in VLC, you can try to export out of VLC by going to File>Streaming/Exporting Wizard and follow the steps in the Wizard

I have tried that, when imported into FCP X the video stutters and there is no audio. Sorry for the rant, it was really frustration at something obvious, this thing of Microsoft AVI and Apple Mov, interferes with production.

Justine

Haha, I could feel that rant coming

An AVI container can hold the weirdest formats, some of them cannot even be opened on Windows computers. It's really up to the people who create the files to send them to you in a format that can be played on any platform without the need of extra converters. VLC can play a lot of weird formats (and some even VLC cannot play), so yes you could try to export it from there. If that doesn't work:

The first thing you should do when you receive a file in a weird format is to find out what the format really is (AVI is not a format, it's just a container just like Quicktime). One of the best utilities to find out the format of a file is MediaInfo: itunes.apple.com/app/mediainfo/id510620098

At 99 cents it's a steal. As soon as you know what kind of file this actually is we may be able to tell you how you can convert it to a normal format. Or you can just rant at the people who are sending you weird files in unconventional formats and tell them to send you decent video files instead

And a very happy X-Mas to you!

- Ronny

Well, I have on my computer a lot of apps for converting files of all sorts and types, just because it happens so many times that you receive files that won't open if you haven't got the right converter for it. It just comes with the job and yes, in most cases it is software that you have to pay for. That's just the way it is.
So I'd suggest you download a trial version of some kind or you can ask your client if they can provide you with a different filetype.
If you have to buy the software you can try to bill your client for the purchase.

Thanks for the heads up on that app Ronny, very very useful and a complete no-brainer.

@MsJustine. Another app you can try is Wondershare Ultimate. I use this to convert AVI files frequently and it may work for you, but as stated by others if the codec is a very unusual one it may not.

ronny courtens wrote: Haha, I could feel that rant coming

The first thing you should do when you receive a file in a weird format is to find out what the format really is (AVI is not a format, it's just a container just like Quicktime). One of the best utilities to find out the format of a file is MediaInfo: itunes.apple.com/app/mediainfo/id510620098

At 99 cents it's a steal. As soon as you know what kind of file this actually is we may be able to tell you how you can convert it to a normal format. Or you can just rant at the people who are sending you weird files in unconventional formats and tell them to send you decent video files instead

And a very happy X-Mas to you!

- Ronny

I think we can all agree Ronny owned Christmas this year. Till the end of boxing day I will consider him Ronny Claus. So much good advice and good cheer on X-Mas day. I was not aware of that app, and I will soon be .99 lighter in the coin purse soon. (Granted a manly coin purse.)

Does anyone recall what app can be used to rewrap AVI files to MOV? I used one on a job from 720 footage from a canon point and shoot long ago. It's like clipwrap.

Transcoding fragile codecs directly to prores is the best way to avoid extra picture loss if we can no longer rewrap to MOV. MPEG Streamclip with the current ffmpeg library enabled can do a great job of most any codecs to prores as it works outside the QT enabled codecs. (RealPlayer never counted...)

Got Perian?

I am in South Africa at this point, buying apps off the app store is not a simple process, in order to buy off the app store I would need to purchase a gift card from the istore, and they are not cheap, the minimum the card can be loaded with is R150 local SA currency, roughly $15, right now this is just not possible, lights/phone and food need to be bought ahead of itunes cards.

The real reason for the rant for which I apologize for is really a petty squabble over old outdated technology that does not really serve any useful purpose, it is akin to Apple having 1 form of USB2.0, and my HP having a different version, this so does not help the consumer of the product, and I am quite shocked really that no one is making a fuss over this, why should we just accept this state of play?

If you live in 1 state in the USA and drive 30 miles into another state, your drivers licence/car insurance, the gas your car uses, should be standard across, if this was not the case, then consumers in this case drivers would make damn sure the situation changed.

We should not be held hostage to 10 000 formats and 20 000 different decoders from AVI to MP4, prores 422, h.264, and the list continues.

It was in my career not so long ago we had only 2 to worry about, PAL and that other one we all laughed at, Never Twice Same Color...In 1 screen size, 4:3...Now?????

The point is really as a new person, I am overwhelmed at the total overload of formats and total incompatibility...

Call me what you want, I do not accept that this is the best that Apple can do, No Sir, it is unacceptable and I hod Apple to a higher standard, they make brilliant hardware and hopefully the same can be with software...I can spend $10 or $100's of my money, client money, in the end I really should be billing Apple for the hours it takes me to find the right coder for the AVI to MOV I need...

I am quite sure it is a 10 minute code into Quicktime 10, may cost Apple Inc $1m or $10m to purchase a way to get AVI to Mov into FCP X or Quicktime, after all they spend how much buying Color then destroyed it in less than 120 months???

Am I wrong?? If I am , I apologize, I am really only wanting to not waste time on stupid decoding task that could so easy be done though quicktime or compressor...

Perian used to be the Swiss Army Knife of video formats. Unfortunately further development of this plugin has been discontinued. You still can download the latest version here: www.perian.org

Perian installs as a QT plugin and helps applications such as QT7 or MPEG Streamclip to read and convert a larger number of codecs. The only thing you should be ware of is that Perian also can cause problems with other plugins used on your system. So it is best just to install it when you have to deal with a weird format and uninstall it when you don' need it anymore.

- Ronny

This was a double post so I have deleted it

I installed perian, it was not able to sort out the avi file, I discussed my issue with my brother and he said it would be akin to Photoshop not being able to opne jpeg files, if this was the case then photoshop would not have survived, it opens so many formats, he went to say that it should be up to the software to deal with the transcoding from old to new, if FCP X is a professional system, it should be able to handle 2013 formats and legacy files such as AVI.

There is a place for apps that handle transcoding, Apple should as matter of process included an transcoder, if there is an encoder [Compressor] why not a transcoder??

Sorry for this, it is not possible to find out the file format as the person is on holiday, it is AVI as far as I know, it plays in VLC< it does not work once transcoded in FCP X.

I am so disappointed in Apple not having this option on import into FCP X or as an option in Quicktime or Compressor.

Sorry, just very frustrated.

Container vs Codecs:

www.philiphodgetts.com/2009/01/whats-the...ontainer-or-wrapper/

Why can a WMV be a movie or an uncompressed audio file? Because it's a proprietary container format that Microsoft still makes royalties off of.

Why is FCP X OpenCL and not CUDA which is more advanced? OpenCL is open source and royalty free. If Apple supported every single container and codec, fcpx wouldn't cost $300. It's not a matter of Apple being unmotivated. In the fcp 6 days I went to a presentation by Apple in NY explaining why prores was their way of putting their efforts into creating a stable NLE instead of supporting every camera format that at the time were coming out every other month.

FCP X supports real time native support for Red footage and many other currently used very robust camera formats. Try to think of the glass as 99/100th full.